An etching process is applied to process a semiconductor or various materials or products.
Such an etching process refers to a process of partially etching the surface of a work piece. As the etching process, a wet etching method using a chemical method is generally used.
Recently, the etching process is applied to various materials. However, there is a limitation on materials to which the wet etching method can be applied.
Therefore, a dry etching method has been introduced instead of the wet etching method.
FIG. 1 illustrates a process of etching copper (Cu) on a semiconductor using such a dry etching method.
First, a work piece having a hard mask 20 deposited on silicon 10 is subjected to a lithography process, and dry etching is performed on the hard mask 20.
Then, a photoresist (PR) film 30 formed during the lithography process is removed, and a Cu film 42 is then deposited in a vacuum chamber.
Then, Cu 44 is deposited on the deposited Cu film 42 through an electro-plating method. Then, the Cu 44 formed above the hard mask 20 is removed through a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) method.
Since the conventional dry etching method includes the chemical process, the number of processes is inevitably increased. Furthermore, since only a few volatile materials can be applied to the dry etching method, various materials cannot be applied to the dry etching method.